Between the Grand
Ducal and the Papal Governments there long existed an _entente cordiale_
on the subject of lotteries. There is no bond, cynics say, so powerful
as that of common interest; and this saying seems to be justified in the
present instance. Though the Court of Rome is at variance on every point
of politics and faith with the present revolutionary Government of
Tuscany, yet in matters of money they are not divided; and so the joint
lottery-system flourishes, as of old. The lottery is drawn once a
fortnight at Rome, and once every alternate fortnight at Florence or
Leghorn; and as far as the speculator is concerned, it makes no
difference whether his ticket is drawn for in Rome or in Tuscany, though
the gains and losses of each branch are, I understand, kept separate.
These lotteries are not of the plain, good old English stamp, in which
there were, say, ten thousand tickets, and ten prizes of different value
allotted to the holders of the ten first numbers drawn, while the
remaining nine thousand nine hundred and ninety ticket-holders drew
blanks. The system of speculation in vogue here is far more hazardous
and complicated. To any one acquainted with the German gambling-places
it is enough to say, that the Papal lottery-system is exactly like that
of a _roulette_ table, with the one important exception, that the chances
in the bank's favour, instead of being about thirty-seven to thirty-six,
as they are at Baden or Hamburgh, are in the proportion of three to one.
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